


Lovesong

by disarmed



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Dirty Talk, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, M/M, Multi, OT3, Semi-established relationship, Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 01:10:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disarmed/pseuds/disarmed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper's laugh is a light and breezy sound. Loki's responding words are meant to strip a person of their inhibitions.</p><p>Tony doesn't need JARVIS to bring up a visual. He has one in his head. Of Loki and Pepper pressed up against one another, smooth-sharp lines and contrasting colors, her hair intertwining with his, his long fingers on her taut body. Tony sees himself in that mix, pressed up behind Pepper, leaving open mouthed kisses on her neck. He sees his own hand on the back of Loki's neck, feels the trickster's fingertips dip beneath the waistband of his jeans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lovesong

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be around 3/4k of light tony/pepper/loki scenarios that ended up with a neat finish. turns out my my brain never likes the original idea when it gets going. this then became something a bit more serious with more plot. set in the almost-aftermath of iron man 3; this timeline is not cemented.

It's all up down turn around.

It always hurts when you hit the ground.

Fate and luck and uncertainty dictate who hits it first, who hits it harder, who takes the brunt of the fall.

Statistics prove that someone will hit the ground running.

It's a one in three chance, of course.

 

 

 

Pepper stands at Tony's side, his arm curled protectively around her waist in a way that says _mine_ and _back off_. She has her fingers buried in the side of his shirt in a way that says _I need you_ and _don't do anything stupid._ Tony's eyes are fixed on Loki, standing a few feet away from their pressed-together-at-the-seams pose, his eyes cold and bitter, his lips thin and sneering.

Pepper's eyes flit everywhere but at Loki's face; she doesn't want to meet his eyes. Tony pulls her in tighter and Pepper takes a breath. Loki is giving them a chance, giving her a chance, giving her a few extra seconds of precious time to stand up and say something. Anything. Pepper swallows the Canada-sized lump in her throat and looks up. Loki's eyes are as green and as sharp as ever, and he gives her another short moment before he visibly backs down, fight leaving his shoulders as he takes a step back, finger curling in on his palms.

His nails will leave crescent shaped marks in the pale skin. Pepper wants to be the one to kiss them away.

 

 

 

They are caught in a never ending loop, like an old record stuck on repeat, spinningspinningspinning and scratched almost beyond repair. Sometimes the music is loud and clear, sharp and tangible like you could curl your fingers around the notes. Other times it is screeches and warbles, where all you want to do is put your hands over your ears to drown out the awful sounds. They are caught in this loop, constantly spinning around one another trying to find the right sound, but all they seem to get is scratches.

 

 

 

Tony has JARVIS do a search through the tower for either Loki or Pepper. JARVIS reports they are together in the kitchen.

'Play audio.'

He tinkers and he twists and he buries himself in grease and hard work as he listens to Loki's rich, dulcet tones and Pepper's easy, smooth replies. Loki's words roll off his tongue in an artful literary seduction, and Pepper responds with the teasing enthusiasm of a knowledgeable student leaning over her professor's desk.

Tony feels himself hardening in his pants and narrows his eyes and focuses on re-calibrating the micro-sensors on his current project.

Pepper's laugh is a light and breezy sound. Loki's responding words are meant to strip a person of their inhibitions.

Tony doesn't need JARVIS to bring up a visual. He has one in his head. Of Loki and Pepper pressed up against one another, smooth-sharp lines and contrasting colors, her hair intertwining with his, his long fingers on her taut body. Tony sees himself in that mix, pressed up behind Pepper, leaving open mouthed kisses on her neck. He sees his own hand on the back of Loki's neck, feels the trickster's fingertips dip beneath the waistband of his jeans.

Pepper laughs again and Tony groans.

 

 

 

None of it is easy.

This inconsistent timeline that none of them can really remember lingers in the backs of their minds along with old grudges and best-kept secrets. How they really feel is stored up with bad memories and shameful actions, buried beneath self-hate and constant regret, balanced precariously atop what if's and maybes.

 

 

 

Loki feels himself falling for the combined genius of Tony Stark and Virginia Potts in a way that isn't too different from falling into the void. Unsure of where he'll land, if he is to land at all, if it will be better than what he had before.

Tony Stark is a rival mind who tiptoes recklessly on the line of danger. He is an inventor and a crafter with quick eyes and an addiction to drink, and Loki wants to pick apart his brain and take all that knowledge and that energy for himself, store it somewhere in the cavern of his chest in the place where he feels his heart should be. Biologically it is still there, but Loki sometimes believes that it froze with the ice that runs in his veins the day he set the Destroyer on Thor.

Loki fingers the glass box in Tony's workshop. _Proof that Tony Stark has a heart._ An interesting play on words from no one other than Pepper herself, no doubt, and Loki lets his fingers trace the lines of the box with a delicate touch. It feels like an intrusion, as if this glass box with an old arc reactor is too personal and private for Loki to be looking at it, let alone touching. But Loki has always been good at being in places he shouldn't, interrupting conversations where he's not welcome, growing up in someone else's family when he's an outsider.

Virginia is an essence of life. She is quick-witted and deceptively perceptive, with smart eyes and a soft smile, and Loki wants to be on the receiving end of that smile. He is scared to admit he wants it so. He is scared to think of what he would do to get it. He has done many things for his own gain in the past, his motivations spurred by such, his own want and need driving him onwards until he's consumed by his one goal. Pepper Potts incites a burning want inside of him. If she were to ask him to bring a planet to its knees he thinks he would do it, willingly and with pleasure because it's _her_ that's asked.

The thought frightens and arouses him.

He has not felt this way before. He does not understand it. This pull towards two creatures so fragile and fleeting in a universe that is so much larger than their small minds could ever comprehend... Loki does not know where it came from or when it started to manifest, all he knows is that he wants it more and more with each passing day.

He's always been good at getting what he wants, but the routes he's taken to get what he wants are usually less than respectable, leaning more towards trickery and cunning and little lies that create a web too wide and too sticky to ever get away from. With Pepper Potts and Tony Stark he feels that his usual ways will be less than appreciated, but he doesn't know what else to do, and there is no one he could ever turn to to ask advice from.

So he will trick and trade his way through this unfurling relationship the best he can, and he can't help but think the stakes for this particular endeavour are higher than others he thought could bring about the end of the world.

It's a different kind of feeling when you compare _the_ world to _your_ world. Loki knows he is selfish on most days, so he has no problem admitting he'd go the extra mile if it meant his tiny little reconstructed world involving this mortal couple could survive a while longer.

 

 

 

Pepper curls hands in his hair and moans his name.

Tony feels his arm shake as he rolls his body forward, feels Pepper constrict around him as her body takes him in, her mouth parted in a blissful 'o' and her leg curved over his hip. He drops his head to take a nipple in his mouth, tongue rolling over the peak and teeth catching at the sensitive skin. Pepper keens. Tony knows her body like he knows his own, he knows every nook and crease and sensitive spot that makes the woman beneath him twitch and moan and sigh and hiss, and he uses it all to his advantage.

Tony Stark plays to win.

Afterwards, when they are covered in a slick sheen of sweat and come and saliva and Pepper's chest has stopped heaving from her third orgasm, Tony brings up Loki.

'So, Loki,' he says by way of starting the conversation. That is all it takes.

Pepper's body goes taught and her breathing hitches. Tony does nothing to calm her. He wants to read her.

'What about Loki?' she asks after a moment, regulating her breathing and pulling the sheet atop their sticky bodies. She rolls onto her side and props her head on the heel of her hand so she can look at him.

Tony glances at her nonchalantly. 'Do you want to fuck him?'

Pepper doesn't move. 'Yes.'

Tony makes a humming sound in his throat and pulls his arms up, resting them underneath his head. 'Do you want him to fuck me?'

'Yes.' Tony glances at her out of the corner of his eye, and she is wearing a carefully blank expression. 'I want you to fuck him, too.' She offers this on her own accord, and Tony approves of how fast she's picked up on his little game.

'Do you want him to stick his tongue in your cunt?' Tony asks blithely, tilting his head to meet her even stare. 'While I fuck him from behind? Do you want us to take you at the same time? My cock up your ass -'

'Yes,' says Pepper, a little breathlessly, 'all of it. I want all of it.'

Tony grunts. 'Okay.' He rolls onto his side and presses a hot, open mouthed kiss to the corner of her mouth, enjoying the way she twists to try and meet his lips with her own. He palms her breast with his right hand, enjoying the way she becomes pliant against him once more. 'Okay,' he says again when they stop kissing, Pepper's face flushed and her eyes wide.

She swallows. 'Okay.'

 

 

 

Loki realizes his mistake early on in the game after he's employed the common use of 'divide and conquer.' He had thought at first that it was just Stark who had appealed to him, just Stark who's fast talking and easy gait had him watching the mortal with a predatory hunger. He had tried for Tony solely on his own, and had been dismissed quickly.

'I might have gone for that if you'd have asked a couple of years ago,' Stark had said in blithe parting. 'When I wasn't in a committed relationship and all that.'

Loki thinks it strange that this is what holds Stark back. What of his past transgression? What of his leading of the Chitauri? What of his personal crimes against Thor for which Tony Stark has no doubt heard of and sided with Thor on? Do these things not matter to Stark when he is looking at potential bedmates, or is it just the idea of this one woman?

Loki thinks he needs to find out why this one mortal woman can have Stark so restrained. He glamours himself into a mortal with a business suit and a large sum of money, and walks in to Pepper Pott's office at Stark Industries. He is impressed immediately. She is astute and unwavering, with a stare that means business and danger, and when she stands in her fitted skirt Loki catches gloriously smooth skin and slim legs.

'If you have no other propositions regarding the company and if you've quite finished staring at my legs, I'm sure you can show yourself out.'

Loki finds himself dismissed from the room like a commoner and he stays seated for a moment, staring dumbly at this woman who is raising her eyebrows at him and waiting expectantly. He rises slowly from the chair in disbelief.

'Loki, I'm assuming?' is what she says when he's almost to the door. He stop and turns, a smirk slowly sliding onto his face as he waits. Pepper crosses her arms over her chest. 'Whatever it is you're trying to accomplish, I suggest you think twice if it means hurting Tony.' Her voice is like steel though her smile is deceptively soft.

'Oh?' murmurs Loki, goading her into further words.

Pepper lifts her head slightly, automatically dominating. 'Yes. You won't like me when I'm angry.' Her sudden smile is self-deprecating and dangerously hostile, and Loki senses loathing and blame bubbling beneath her cool surface.

Loki just smiles. 'I think you'll find I rather will, Miss Potts.'

He leaves with the mocking version of a courtly bow.

First impressions do count, it seems.

 

 

 

It's almost a game of cat and mouse, and sometimes none of them know which role they should be taking. Tony finds himself chasing images of Pepper sliding down onto Loki's hard cock while he himself jerks off next to them. Sometimes he's taking Pepper, sliding into her and bracketing her with his arms as Loki opens him up with those long fingers, pressure in his ass and around his cock. Tony likes to think of Loki's lips wrapped around his cock, the God on his knees as Tony fucks his face.

Pepper finds herself chasing possible outcomes, good and bad, of the three of them coming together in Lord knows what, exactly. Would it be committed? Would Loki be around all the time, or would he only be an additive to the more physical part of their relationship? Would she be allowed to have sex with Loki if Tony isn't in the room? Would Tony fuck Loki without her knowing? Does she trust not only Tony but herself to allow this complication into their lives, after all they've ever had is complications?

Loki finds himself chasing something far more dangerous than anything else he's ever chased before. Hope. The bright spark of an idea that could be happiness. Can he be happy with these two? Do they want this with him? He thinks that if he has to force them into something it will lose its appeal. He isn't blind, however, he can see the way Stark looks at him with dark, calculating eyes when he thinks Loki isn't looking. He knows Pepper's eyes flick over his body when she thinks he's too distracted to notice.

They are chasing different things and the same things all at the same time.

 

 

 

Pepper and Tony argue heatedly one night. There is yelling and swearing and Tony leaves the room in a rage, storming down to the R&D department to lock himself up for a good forty eight hours just to make her worry. Pepper walks off her anger in tight circles around the lounge floor, and it isn't until the twenty-second run that she notices Loki leaning against the kitchen counter.

'What?' she snaps irritably. 'Come to gloat?'

'Never,' replies Loki smoothly, but the grin on his face says otherwise.

Pepper sighs. 'Don't you have somewhere to be, someone else to annoy?' She resumes her circular pacing. 'Why don't you go downstairs and see if you can't _blow_ this bad mood out of him?' The bitter words are out before she can really think about it, and she stops and whips her head up to meet Loki's eyes. He is grinning knowingly.

'I could, if that is what you would like.'

Pepper eyes him suspiciously. 'When have you ever done something that I'd like?'

Loki's grin bares his teeth. 'I can do many things that you would like, Virginia.'

Pepper shivers visibly.

Loki steps closer. 'I can do many things that you would _both_ like.'

Pepper lets him invade her personal space, lets him press his chest against hers and place his palm over her back, holding her to him. Loki is hard lines and sharp angles, cheekbones like glass and eyes that look aged. He is beautiful in a way that Pepper has never considered, beauty made up of stardust and old myths, and she is reminded of what he really is.

The staggering notion makes her pull away, and Loki lets her go.

'What do you want from us?' she asks with narrowed eyes.

Loki smiles sadly. 'Everything.'

 

 

 

'I'm an asshole,' says Tony as he kisses her ribcage.

Pepper arches up beneath his warm lips. 'That you are.'

'I'm selfish.' His tongue traces her hip bone. She feels her breath stutter. 'I'm inconsiderate.' His fingers map trails along her thighs, making her shiver with want and impatience. 'I fucked up.' He breathes warm air across her belly and dips his head down, stroking one long lick up the length of her slit. 'I'm sorry.'

Pepper scratches her nails lovingly across his shoulder blade. He licks her again, one hand creeping up between her thighs to press two hot fingertips to her throbbing cunt, sliding over slick skin and delving into wet heat without preamble.

Tony hardly ever apologises, but when he does he always acts like this, attempting to make it up to her in leaps and bounds of physical affection, as if he can fuck the mistakes away. As if every touch and every jolt of pleasure can erase the way he made her feel before this. As if they start afresh with every orgasm.

'Don't change,' Pepper pants out as Tony's fingers slide into her and he tongues at her clit. 'Tony - don't.' Her fingers dig into his neck as he places his other hand over her trembling thigh reassuringly. 'I love you,' she says and it ends in a moan that has Tony propelling himself up the length of her body to kiss the words and the moans and the acceptance from her mouth.

 

 

 

'What's your game plan?' Tony dashes liquid heat into two tumblers and slides one down the bar towards his semi-residential God of Mischief. He leans a hip against the bar and picks up his glass, head tilting curiously to the side. 'Come on, give it up, stop playing hard to get.'

Loki looks disdainfully at the drink offered to him before picking it up with a thumb and finger, letting it dangle a few inches from the bar top while he studies it.

'Who says I have a game plan?' he responds after a drawn out moment, looking up from his drink blandly.

Tony gives a disbelieving huff. 'Because you're you.' He pushes off the bar and moves closer to where Loki is standing, tense and aware and suspicious. Tony thinks that Pepper must have had words with him for the God to be this cautious around him. Usually they are guns blazing and reckless abandon, poker-hot words and dagger-sharp stares, an inferno of intelligence and alpha-male-complexities just begging to collide.

Loki just shrugs. 'Perhaps I am - and what is the term - 'winging it?'' He smiles a devious smile that shows no teeth, and Tony imagines himself licking over that seam and opening it with his tongue, biting on tender wet skin to draw the blood and suck it down, have a man of myth and legend bleed in him. Tony finds himself getting hot and flushed and his eyes flick towards Loki's mouth in dangerous journeys.

'Well then,' says Tony, his mouth dry and his palms sweating, 'let me know when you come up with a plan. Don't just spring it on Pepper - she's not good with surprises.' He walks past, clapping Loki on the shoulder and trying not to let his hand linger too long.

He leaves the God with his drink and his thoughts, and takes with him his own glass and the vivid image of Loki fucking him so hard he can't walk for a week.

 

 

 

Pepper looks up from the work she's brought home later that week to find Loki reclining in the chair across from her. She puts her tablet down and frowns.

'Are you here more often or am I imagining things?' she says, perplexed and vaguely amused. She finds it particularly difficult to read Loki today. His legs are splayed open in a blatant disregard of the crotch-central view she's being gifted with - though knowing Loki, that could be deliberate - and he looks rather thoughtful as compared to most days he shows up looking either devious, seductive or angry.

'Stark,' says Loki slowly, 'told me I had a 'nice ass' today.'

Pepper raises and eyebrow. 'Did he now?' Loki looks at her and nods. Pepper hums thoughtfully. 'Well, he's not lying.'

Loki turns sharp eyes on her. 'What did you -'

'Perhaps,' says Pepper firmly, picking her tablet back up and looking through the stock shares, 'you should pay more attentions to what Tony _does_ rather than what he _says_.'

When she looks up, Loki is gone.

 

 

 

After leaving Pepper to her work, Loki thinks it's probably for the best he didn't mention that Tony had given his ass a rather firm smack after he'd said it.

 

 

 

It's sometime later; Loki doesn't count the days. Mortal time works differently from Asgard and the days move too fast for him to be bothered keeping track of. He times his visits to Stark Tower with how the feeling his gut grows, the gnawing in his chest that expands after having not seen either Stark or Virginia. He knows he's too far in now, what with that constant pressure in his body making him want and need, so what better way to dull the ache than to give it what it wants.

He appears in the living room to find Pepper sinking down onto Tony's erect cock. Her hair is in a delicate twist and she is naked except for a pair of black heels. Her thighs flex as she spreads herself in Tony's lap, low sounds emitting from her throat as Tony murmurs a cacophony of 'fuck yes baby, that's it, take it, fuck Pepper' - Loki finds blood rushing to his own cock in nanoseconds.

'Fuck -' Tony's eyes shift to where Loki is standing. 'Pep,' he says slowly, and Pepper twists her neck around to match his gaze.

Her face is flushed and her mouth is parted and Loki swallows. 'My apologies,' he says dryly, 'for interrupting.'

'Is that it?' demands Pepper, and Tony grunts and thrusts his hips up slightly, making her smack his thigh. 'Nothing else?'

Loki raises a brow. 'I am _terribly_ sorry for interrupting,' he says with mock sincerity, 'if there's _anything_ I can do -'

'Yes,' snaps Tony heatedly, 'you can get your crazy ass over here and fuck us.'

Pepper laughs, but it turns into a groan when Tony leans forward to bite at her breasts. 'What he said,' she gasps out.

Loki smirks and walks forward, stripping his clothes off with practised ease as he goes. He's halfway to naked when he reaches them, touches his fingers to Pepper's over-heated shoulder and trails them down her shoulder blade. A touch, and Tony has his hand on Loki's hip, pulling him in.

'I need to buy a bigger couch,' the billionaire says as Pepper leans back into Loki's touch.

'I have a solution,' murmurs Loki, a hand trailing down to palm the breast Tony hasn't left red marks on. 'Certainly one that requires less financial activity.' He smirks wickedly and then the ground falls from beneath them.

 

 

 

Pepper has to admit, the teleporting to the bedroom thing? It's kind of neat.

 

 

 

Her heart is a bomb in a birdcage, her ribs are turning into claws in an attempt to rip open her chest, her spine is bending as if it is asking to be snapped in half. Her blood pressure must be rising. She must be delusional. Maybe she's hallucinating. Is it possible she's drunk?

She is reminded very suddenly that no, none of this is fabricated or forced, as Loki slides between her legs and presses cool lips to her wet slit, tongue probing between slick folds to lap and lick and suck and caress while Tony holds her hands above her head and murmurs semi-coherent filth at her.

'Is this what you wanted? - fuck Pepper - I could make you suck my cock right now - what does it feel like; his tongue in your cunt? - Are you gonna fuck him? Am _I_ going to fuck him? Do you want to watch us fuck - Jesus _Christ_.'

'You never miss an opportunity to talk, do you Stark?' Loki detaches his mouth from Pepper's cunt just long enough to send a raised brow in Tony's direction.

Tony lifts an arm and looks under it. 'Not really, no.' He purses his lips for a moment. 'Are you going to go back to eating her out, or?'

Pepper rolls her eyes and thrusts her hips up. 'Really?' she grates out as she raises her head. 'Right now?'

Loki places one long-fingered hand across her thigh, petting it nonchalantly as he uses the other to stroke over her clit, though his eyes remain focused on Tony. 'Only if you continue using that foul mouth of yours.'

Tony grins. 'Foul mouth is right; just you wait and see.'

Pepper goes to day something but Loki slides two fingers into her and she gasps loudly. Loki hums. 'I do look forward to your efforts.'

'That,' says Tony dryly, 'makes it seem as if you don't have much faith in me.'

Loki doesn't say anything after that, just buries himself between Pepper's legs and allows Tony to continue on in his filthy talk. Pepper doesn't say anything to discourage this turn of events, but she can feel the sudden change in both men, the intensity in which Loki eats her out, the flex of Tony's fingers around her wrists; she can feel the change in them.

That's the thing, she thinks as she is propelled towards orgasm, Loki does have faith in Tony

And now they all know it.

 

 

 

Loki wakes to a warm leg slung over his hip and steady breathing along his collarbones. He twists his head to see Pepper lying across him, nestled into his side as comfortably as if they had done this for years. He glances around the room but Tony is absent, and Loki can not remember him leaving. Annoyed at himself for allowing all his awareness to drop just because of a few orgasms, Loki gently detaches himself from the woman next to him.

'He's in the shower.' Pepper supplies sleepily as her fingers pull him back to her. 'He's -' she breaks off, yawning widely and blinking. 'He's got a _thing_ with showers.' The way she emphasises the word _thing_ makes Loki wonder just what other _things_ Tony is strange about, though Loki is hardly one to accuse or blame, he has plenty of his own _things_ (the way Pepper says the word leaves no doubt that she means 'issues' or 'problems' and Loki has those in spades).

He feels uncomfortable lying here with Pepper though, - not because of the woman herself, but because he was supposed to be the one to leave first - and he hadn't been about to search out Stark in order to confess his affections or some such nonsense. More like pressure answers out of him.. Pepper is warm and inviting and Loki feels panic well in him because he never got this far, never planned this far ahead when he imagined seducing them both.

'You're okay now,' mumbles Pepper, and rolls off him. Loki lays there in befuddlement. 'To go see him,' she clarifies into her pillow. 'He'll be over it by now.'

Loki hesitates for a moment before sliding out of the bed.

'Loki?'

He turns, looking back at Pepper as she slides a hand out to touch his wrist. He glances down to her own wrist, expecting to see the bruises blooming from their rough treatment last night, but Pepper's skin is unmarked and as prsitine as ever. He quirks a brow. She raises one in return.

Pepper's smile is soft and slow and sure and warmth wells in his gut that he wants to be rid of because it only leads to trouble. She doesn't even say anything else, just leaves him with that smile and that warmth and Loki gets up swiftly, pulling on his pants and shirt before leaving the room.

 

 

 

'What are you and Virginia plotting?'

Tony swears violently as the frosted shower door is almost ripped off its hinges. Loki stands there, waiting expectantly with his arms crossed over his chest.

'Jesus _fuck,_ you give a man an orgasm and this is how you treat him the next day? See if I suck your dick again you assho -'

'I _said_ ,' says Loki menacingly, or as menacingly as he can while his eyes roam Tony's wet, naked body. 'What are you and Virginia plotting?'

'Well, nothing right now,' says Tony as he turns back to his shower, choosing to ignore Loki's presence in terms of letting it affect him. Loki's just lucky he didn't come in sooner - Tony has a _thing_ about private time in the bathroom. He doesn't mind walking in on others or having them come in when he's halfway done or near to finished, but never right away. Not until he's had his time along and cleaned himself up. It's just a thing. 'I mean, she's not in this shower _with_ me so the closest thing I can think of is possibly world domination, but let's be honest, I'm already eighty percent of the way there -'

'That is not what I mean.' Loki feels himself getting angry and embarrassed because he doesn't want this to be a a trick. Doesn't want last night to be a fleeting, stolen moment that he stumbled into by accident just to be disregarded the next day.

Tony shampoos his hair with a sigh. 'Pepper - I trust Pepper with my life, okay? This is something she wants.' Tony hesitates, fingers pausing in the massage of his scalp. 'It's something we both want - have wanted for a while - and we're acting on it.' He glances at Loki momentarily. 'We've been under the assumption you've wanted the same.'

'That's the most sense I've heard from your mouth since I met you,' responds Loki dryly. 'I _am_ impressed.'

'Alright cocksucker, any other insecurities you want to saddle me with or can we skip to the part where you get naked and fuck me up against the shower wall?' Tony finishes with a winning smile as he rinses his shampoo out.

Loki smiles wickedly and strips twice as fast as he did the night before, stepping into the heated water and crowding Tony up into the corner. Tony's skin is warm and flushed and wet, and Loki slides up against him like an alley cat looking for warmth, their mouths sliding together messily until Tony bites down on Loki's lip hard enough to draw blood. Loki pulls back to stare at the mortal with God-blood on his lips, at the pink tongue darting out to catch the stray drops. Tony looks rapt, and he leans forward eagerly to lick at Loki's mouth.

'Filthy, Stark,' murmurs Loki into his mouth. 'So filthy.' Then he is the one licking his own fingers, blood and saliva on the tips before he reaches down to find Tony's entrance, bypassing the already erect cock. The water washes away the minuscule droplets of blood, but the idea and the fleeting visual is enough for Tony to gasp loudly and squeeze his eyes shut when Loki's fingers press into slightly-loose muscle.

'Have you already washed here, Stark?' Loki mutters as he thrusts his fingers in further. 'Already taken my seed from your body?'

Tony's eyes snap open and he pants out a grin. 'You're a kinky fucker.' He pulls Loki closer and bites hard into his neck. 'I like that.'

 

 

 

Pepper lingers outside the bathroom door for a moment, listening to Loki's questioning and Tony's flippancy-based honesty, listens to Tony's admittance and invitation. She smiles at the long, drawn-out groan that escapes Tony's mouth, rolls across the bathroom floor and seeps out under the door to climb into her ears.

Her fingertips trace her skin where bruises should be, she rolls her shoulders where there should be an ache. There are times she regrets decisions she's made; this is one of them. She wants to feel it, wants to feel the lingering pain and pleasure of a good hard fuck. Nevermind. She smiles to herself as she walks off down the hallway, there's always next time.

 

 

 

Pepper is curled up on the couch with her work spread around her, her feet tucked under Loki's thighs where he sits on the opposite end, reading through a thick tome that Tony insists is bound in human skin. (Come to think of it, Pepper doesn't actually remember Loki disagreeing.) Tony keeps making frequent appearances while he works on something in his shop - he seems to be under the impression that if he's away for too long Pepper and Loki will start to engage in something he definitely wants to be a part of. He's somewhat given up now, after the fifth time when he'd looked almost too excited for something to happening and found them both entertaining mundane activities. (That's what he calls them; much to Loki's annoyance and Pepper's constant correction of 'just because you don't like to do something doesn't make it mundane.')

'What are you reading?' Pepper asks after the figures on her tablet start to blur. She drops it to the couch and wriggles her toes underneath Loki's leg.

He doesn't look up from his reading. 'Something stolen.'

Pepper just rolls her eyes. Loki reaches down with his right hand and squeezes her calf.

Then the elevator doors slide open and in rolls a plethora of armed S.H.I.E.L.D agents and a few choice Avengers. Pepper lets out an astonished little shriek and reacts on instinct, throwing her tablet at the intruders as hard as she can. It hits an agent in the shoulder and he jerks back from the unnatural force. Loki is on his feet without a moment's hesitation, moving to block her with his body just as Tony bursts into the room as well.

A handful of guns are pointed at him immediately.

'The _one_ time,' he says tiredly, disregarding the firearms pointed at his chest to look over at Loki and Pepper, 'I stop coming up to check on you both.' He shakes his head in mock exasperation.

' _What_ is going on here?' Pepper says after a long moment, standing up and straightening herself up, eyes narrowing at the agents and Avengers intruding in her home. 'Director Fury,' she says, teeth clipping together when she spots him with his gun trained on Loki's forehead. 'What _are_ you doing?'

'We're here to take the Intergalactic Criminal you've been hiding into custody, whereupon he will be escorted back to Asgard and sentenced for his crimes.' Fury says in a clinical tone. 'Or, what was supposed to have happened over a year ago.'

'Not our fault you're incompetent.' Tony snorts and starts walking towards where Loki and Pepper are standing.

'Don't move, Stark.' Natasha's voice is cool and calm as she keeps her gun pointed at him. 'Let's not do anything rash.'

'Rash?' says Tony blithely as he keeps walking. 'Practically on my calling card. You would know.' He rolls his eyes at Fury's barked orders to stop. 'Can it, Director, you're not going to shoot me and we all know it.'

'Why's that?' asks Fury curiously. 'You're under the wrong impression if you think that, Stark.'

'Doubt it,' replies Tony with a wave of his fingers. ''Cause if you do you're going to piss off my Asgardian boyfriend over there, who will probably obliterate you in seconds, _or_ -' Tony points at Pepper. 'You're going to piss off my girlfriend, whose superhuman abilities rival that of Rogers' - yeah, by the way, _hi_ Steve, nice of you to drop by.' He gives a sarcastic little wave of his fingers to where Steve is standing behind Fury, no weapons in his hands save for his shield, and he even manages to look a little contrite at being singled out. Tony smirks smugly at Fury's shocked expression. 'Oh, I'm _sorry_ , did I forget to mention that? We never got rid of the Extremis in Pepper's system. After a long, drawn out argument that lasted about a month, we decided to _stabilize_ it instead.'

He's by Pepper's side now, looking far too pleased with himself to be really appropriate in regards to the situation.

'Before you think about anything else,' adds Tony when Fury goes to open his mouth, 'one word from me and JARVIS there will get in on the fun, too.'

There's a shocked gasp as one of the agents turn to the door Tony's pointing to, the one he just emerged from. In the frame stands an Iron Man suit, or something very similar to it.

Tony smiles dangerously. 'Isn't that right, Jarv?'

'Yes, Sir,' the suits responds in Tony's AI'S accented voice. It raises one arm, palm facing outwards, in an obvious display of power.

'To put it shortly,' says Tony once they've all evaluated this new threat, 'you're fucking with the wrong people, Nick.'

Fury looks like he's about to have a conniption, threats and shouts and accusations broiling on the tip of his tongue as he keeps his gun trained at Loki's head. 'He is a wanted war criminal,' he grates out as evenly as possible. 'Whatever sick, twisted ideas you've been having to get involved with him -'

'Please don't insult Tony's decisions upon who he should or should not enter a relationship with,' says Pepper loudly. Her voice is like steel and her eyes are ice as the Extremis - the serum that she kept so well concealed from everyone - starts to burn orange around her chest and arms. 'In doing so, you are questioning my decisions.' The Extremis runs into Pepper's eyes, bleeding blue to gold, and when she smiles it's almost frightening. 'I don't like my decisions to be questioned.'

'Are you siding with him?' asks Fury after a long moment. 'By lying to us about Potts' treatment, about your extermination of the Iron Man armour -'

'I never lied, Nicky.' Tony waggles his finger back and forth as if he's talking to a naughty child. 'I told you Pepper's condition had been treated, not eliminated, _treated_. I also told you that my Iron Man armour was now obsolete. JARVIS' physical body has been a tinker-time hobby over the past nine months or so, it has nothing to do with _my_ Iron Man suits.' Tony's smirk is as wide as the Cheshire cat's could ever have been. 'Try that again.'

Fury doesn't respond verbally; he clicks the safety off his gun instead and steps forward.

Loki makes a growling sort of sound in his throat as he matches Fury's step with one of his own. 'Try,' he says in a provoking tone, 'I'll pluck that bullet from my head like you would take a splinter from your thumb. It is as nothing to me.' His tongue wets his bottom lip teasingly. 'Then I shall push it through your eye and into your brain, Director.'

Loki's words have the S.H.I.E.L.D agents in a frenzy.

'Enough!' Pepper's voice cuts through the tension in the room. She moves to meet Loki, a hand on his tensed arm almost without really recognising it. 'I refuse to have this fight in my home. I refuse for you to come in here and ruin what we have taken so long to achieve.' She narrows her eyes at them. 'If none of you realized what I'm talking about it's normalcy. I have strived for that in the past few years and I will be damned if you come in and ruin it all for me now.' Her body is trembling but her voice is strong, and Pepper knows she is doing the right thing, she knows that this is what she should be saying. She feels Loki at her shoulder, a reassuring pressure, and know that Tony is coming up in peripheral vision on her other side.

These are her men, this is her life, and this is what she wants.

She meets Fury's eyes across the room. 'This is _not_ a threat, Director Fury, it is a declaration. You will _not_ be taking anyone away from me.'

'Somehow,' says Fury slowly, 'I'm feeling threatened.'

'Good,' snarls Loki at her right shoulder. 'Then all is as it should be. Now _get out_.' He spits the words with venom and hostility and two of the agents almost shrink back.

'Tony,' says Steve pleadingly, ever the attempted voice of reason. 'Do you know what you're doing?'

Tony laughs. 'For once Steve, I know exactly what I'm doing.' He looks to Pepper and Loki. 'We all do.' He meets his friend's eyes across the room. 'Do you?'

Steve hesitates.

'Alright. Enough's enough.' It is Natasha who breaks the ice, drops her weapon and rounds on her own men. 'Director Fury, I think it's best we take this up on another occasion, and perhaps with a different tactic.' She regards the three of them standing opposite her with something akin to bemusement. 'I don't think we even have the firepower to try and take them by force.'

Fury looks like he wants to rip someone's head off but he doesn't say anything, instead stares at them hatefully for a long moment before pulling back his own firearm.

'Fine,' he barks, 'let's get the fuck out of here.' He points a finger at Stark. 'I'll be in touch.'

'I bet you will, Nicky!' Tony calls after him. Natasha drops Pepper a slow, barely-there wink, and Pepper almost smiles. 'What about you, Wonder Boy?' Tony asks of Steve who lingers behind. 'Got anything else to say?'

Steve's mouth is set in a firm frown, and he shakes his head at Tony, but then he directs his gaze to Loki. 'I'd let Thor know about this.' He waves his hand at the three of them. 'He's worried,' says Steve slowly, 'more than anything.' He frowns again, a war in his own mind at what he's seeing and hearing in this room to what he's been told is wrong and right; it's readable in his face.

'Thanks, Steve,' says Tony, slightly softer.

When the elevator doors are shut and Steve has gone, Tony visibly relaxes. 'What an evening,' he says to Loki and Pepper. 'Hey, Jarv?' he calls over his shoulder. 'Take five.'

'Thank you, Sir.' Jarvis disappears down the hallway.

Then he's pulling Pepper to him in a crushing grip, his other hand winding around the back of Loki's head to bring him in for a kiss that is all tongue and teeth and brutal affection. He sighs in relief into Loki's mouth as Pepper places kisses on his shoulder and trails her hand down Loki's back.

 

 

 

So they're not normal; not by most peoples' standards, but when it's just them, curled up on the couch or bickering over dinner or lying together in bed... Pepper smiles as Loki's lips map kisses down the back of her neck, his hand sliding around her hip to dip between her legs, even as Tony stirs and thrusts his hips shallowly against her belly. Pepper doesn't care about other peoples' standards anyway. This is them, this is who they are and these are the choices they've made, and the argument can be made that they were the wrong choices - she knows some of hers were down the track once upon a time. But this choice? This decision on who to love? It's theirs and theirs alone; and she thinks they've made a good one.

Her fingers curl diligently around Tony's stomach as he props himself up on his side. His smile makes her smile. Behind her, Loki moves closer, pressing those soft lips from her neck to her shoulder blade, tracing the shape of bone beneath skin with gentle flicks of his tongue. He pulls his hand back from between her thighs to skitter over her ribcage. Tony's hand trails up fingers playing with the long, loose tendrils of hair that fall over her shoulder. She shifts her head to feel his hand on her cheek. His palm his warm and familiar against her skin. He rests his hand on her waist, his fingers brushing against Loki's, drops his head down to kiss lightly up to her neck, tickle the sensitive skin there.

Her eyes flutter shut.

This is home. Here between two of the most brilliant, dangerous, reckless, loving men she has ever met. Men who would die for her and for each other; men who didn't think themselves capable of such things once upon a time. Men _she_ should give _her_ life for.

'I love you,' she murmurs into the space between them.

Loki pulls her to him as if he might make them one. Tony kisses her like the world is ending.

 

 

 

Lying there in post-coital bliss, yet to withdraw from Pepper's body, Loki still splayed inelegantly across his back, Tony hums the bars to a song that's floated into his head. 

'Mmm,' mumbles Pepper as she shifts in the bed. 'I like that song.' 

Loki's words are muffled in Tony's neck. 'What song?' 

Tony hums again. Pepper smiles sleepily.

'Whenever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again,' she says into the quiet darkness. Her voice carries the hint of a melody as she speaks the words, Tony still humming the same tune on repeat. Loki listens intently. 'Whenever I'm alone with you,' murmurs Pepper as she curls in towards them both, 'you make me feel like I am whole again.' 

Loki has never heard the song, and if he has he doesn't recognise it, but just from those few lines, those simple words from Pepper's mouth, he feels he knows it more than anyone ever has. 

'Yes,' he murmurs in agreement. 'A good song indeed.' 

 


End file.
